42. Q. Of what is the demonstration manifest that man has received
through the medium of Jesus Christ? A. A perfect system of instruction;
and a final and perfect revelation of duty to God and man could be
given in no other way.
43. Q. What are two facts history furnishes that are peculiar proofs
of the Messiahship of Christ? A. First, the Jewish prophets lived and
wrote centuries before the period in which Jesus appeared in Judea;
second, on account of intimations, or supposed intimations in their
prophecies, the Jews were expecting the Messiah about the time that
Jesus appeared in Judea.
44. Q. If a person had appeared and conformed to the views which the
Jews entertained of a temporal Messiah, of what would it have been
direct evidence? A. That he was an imposter.
45. Q. Give three reasons for this conclusion? A. 1. Because their
views were partial, prejudiced and wicked. 2. He could not have
conformed to their views and sustained at the same time the character
of a perfect instructor. 3. He would not have fulfilled the predictions
of the prophets concerning him.
46. Q. What follows, therefore, legitimately and conclusively? A. That
Jesus Christ was the Messiah of God.
47. Q. In what other way was it necessary that Jesus should establish
his claim as the Messiah? A. By miraculous agency.
48. Q. What condition in life would it be necessary that the Messiah
should assume in order to benefit the human family in the highest
degree by the influence of that condition? A. In that condition which
would have the most direct influence to destroy selfishness and
pride in the human heart, and to foster, in their stead, humility,
contentment and benevolence.
49. Q. As it is an acknowledged and experimental fact that the soul
finds rest only in meekness, and never in selfishness and pride of
mind, of what is the demonstration therefore perfect in regard to the
condition Christ assumed? A. That Christ assumed the only condition
which it was possible for him to assume and thereby destroy pride and
misery, and produce humility and peace in human bosoms.
50. Q. In constituting the human soul, upon what has God, in accordance
with his own character, caused its happiness to depend? A. Upon
righteousness and goodness.
51. Q. What was the whole force of the Savior’s teaching and example
designed and adapted to produce? A. Righteousness and benevolence.
52. Q. What conclusion follows from these two statements? A. That
Jesus was the Christ of God; because the Christ of God could found his
instructions upon no other principles.
53. Q. What are the only two means by which truth can be brought into
contact with the soul? A. By perception and faith.
54. Q. What are their effects upon man’s conduct and feelings? A.
They are nearly the same, with the following remarkable exception:
Facts, which are the subjects of personal observation, every time they
are experienced, the effect upon the soul grows less; while, on the
contrary, those facts which are received by faith, produce, every time
they are realized, a greater effect upon the soul.
55. Q. This being true, which would be the method the better adapted to
bring the sublime truths of the new dispensation to bear upon the souls
of men? A. Faith.
56. Q. What moral powers of the soul does faith govern? A. The
conscience and the affections.
57. Q. Upon what does man’s interests, temporal and spiritual, depend?
A. Upon what he believes.
58. Q. What does the belief of falsehood always destroy, and how does
the belief of truth guide man, and what does it secure for him? A.
The belief of falsehood always destroys man’s interests, temporal and
spiritual, and the belief of truth invariably guides man aright and
secures his best and highest good.
59. Q. It having been demonstrated that righteousness and benevolence
is the greatest good of the soul, what doctrine is necessarily true? A.
That doctrine which rectifies the conscience, purifies the heart, and
produces love to God and men.
60. Q. What vital and necessary principle did Christ lay at the
foundation of the Christian system? A. “He that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be
damned”—saved in accordance with the moral constitution of the
universe, and damned from the absolute necessities existing in the
nature of things.